New In Colours

Stampin' Up has gone all pastel with the new 5 in-colours.  I had a big pout with the recent colour revision, as they got rid of MANY of my favourites.  The replacements aren't making me happy, but I am trying to work with them none the less.  Here is a card using 3 of them: Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding and Burnt Brown Sugar.  While I was in the UK, I picked up a magazine, Simply Handmade, which came with a set of stamps.  The dressform stamp comes from that set, as does the pistachio gingham paper used to spotlight the dressform body.  The argyle background is a Tim Holtz.  The ribbon is a scrap of Certainly Celery, which is far enough away from the Pistachio to look related.  This is an uncharacteristically clean card for me.

We had a lot of retirements at school this year, and this card is one that I made for a retiring VP.  It uses a technique that I learned from another UK magazine, PaperCrafting.  It involves outlining the stamped image with a really soft black pencil or charcoal.  It gives a shadow to the image, and really makes it pop.  The stamps are all SU: Everything Eleanor, Papaya Collage and You're a Gem.  Colours are Pool Party, Crumb Cake and Early Espresso.  I spritzed the card first with water and lightly dragged a sponge loaded with Crumb Cake into the water droplets to give the background some texture.  A single line of embossed cross stitches gives the edge some definition.

Thanks for looking!